Sedlo Hliny – Oravská Polhora

→ 33,5 km ↑ 1811 m ↓ 1945 m – total 131,5 km

Last night we’d talked about whether we’d try to make today’s last bus from Oravská Polhora to Kysuce. We had the ambition, but I forgot to set the alarm, so we get up at 6:40am and we’d have to run to make it. For breakfast we have porridge again and coffee. I even wash the dishes in the little stream. Standing up for the first time is genuinely painful, hopefully it’ll walk off. From our sleeping spot we head into the forest, where we see a blue marker. Clearly nobody walks it, since we lose it right away, so we cut across the forest to rejoin the red trail. We start with a steep climb, as usual.

Today really won’t be easy. It’s the fourth day and right from the morning I’m in crisis. Jozef’s doing fine, but he’s supportive. We pass a lot of bear droppings, but none fresh, all older.

We run into three Poles doing the Główny Szlak Beskidzki, we’d already seen them yesterday too. We take a break at the same spot, by a shelter with a spring. There’s a fairly nice view there, but the shelter’s not in the best shape.

The spring’s like a little pool, with a bit of water flowing from it. I fill a cup and pour it into the water bladder to filter, the Poles just fill their bottles directly. Then they joke about whether they’ll catch E. coli from that water. I convince Jozef to make pasta for lunch. I’m hungry after yesterday’s light dinner, and we’ve still got a lot of climbing ahead. So he cooks pasta with tuna and tea too. It really hits the spot and I walk better after it. Shortly after, we reach the northernmost point of Slovakia. If I hadn’t pointed it out, Jozef wouldn’t even have noticed.

From there it’s still 8 km to Babia hora with 850 meters of elevation, but also 260 meters down. We keep descending, so I jog down a bit to speed things up. That means only one thing, the climb later will be steeper. We finally reach that climb, it’s fairly steep and then goes back down again, so that still wasn’t it.

Now we’re really going up, climbing in silence, slowly but steadily. The higher we go, the sparser the vegetation. Not a soul in sight. Every so often Jozef switches on his phone to handle some work call. Meanwhile I keep grinding uphill.

Before Malá Babia hora thunder rumbles. Just to be safe we check the weather, it’s far off, holding over the Tatras, so we continue. At the summit we take a photo together with Babia hora wrapped in clouds in the background. We shoot it on self-timer, the tripod’s mounted on the trail marker post.

Along a well-maintained path we run down to the pass, where there’s even a paved path from the hut on the Polish side. We meet one woman. Must have been a crowd here yesterday. The paved path continues uphill too.

Every so often we pass a snowfield. A strong wind’s blowing up top and we layer up. We’re slowly entering fog.

We’d both assumed Babia hora was some kind of flat hill, but it’s not. We’re finally up. We meet a Pole with three kids there. He asks us about the route ahead, they’re doing a loop from Slaná voda. I show him on the map which way to go. One boy’s barefoot, so I point it out. The father says he walked in his shoes halfway up the hill, but doesn’t like wearing them, so he keeps them in his pack.

I’m glad we’re finally up, and from here it’s just over 10 km and 1000 meters down. We move at a gentle jog. The path’s paved with stones in places and a complete mess in others, the kind where you can really twist an ankle.

We’ve got a view over all of Orava region and we can see a storm forming and rumbling ahead of us, glad we’re heading down already.

We pass a shelter where I’d originally wanted to sleep. A pretty nice spot, you sleep in the loft, there’s a spring, and it’s not too far from the summit, so great if you want to catch sunrise. After 3 km and 500 meters of elevation we take a break at the lookout tower. My feet hurt and I’m starting to stumble.

At least we finish off the tortillas with Kolatch, and that’ll keep my energy up till the end. One more kilometer of steep descent and then an endless road into Oravská Polhora awaits us.

It’s fairly gentle now, and I need to put in more effort just to move forward. We pass another lookout tower, standing on flat ground with no view from it at all, we don’t get why they build towers like that. We cross the 2.5 km long Hviezdoslavova alley, which is straight, endless, and we can’t see the end of it.

I try to shuffle my little legs as fast as I can. Jozef thinks I’m stumbling, since one of his steps equals two of mine, but going any faster would mean running. We finally reach the paved road with a giant bench, so I climb up on it to break up the walk a bit. Jozef goes to fill a bottle with Slaná voda mineral water at the spring, and I continue on toward Polhora.

I walk along checking my phone for when our bus goes. It’s in an hour, but the long way round through Kraľovany and Žilina, meaning we’d be in Raková before midnight. Just to be safe I also check Blablacar. Surprisingly there’s a ride from Klin, two villages over, to Krásno nad Kysucou. I text Martin asking if he’d be willing to come pick us up in Oravská Polhora. He replies, sure. We agree he’ll pick us up in the village in 20 minutes. Jozef catches up to me. Some guys sitting around had filled his bottle with the mineral water and he was about to drink it straight away, but they stopped him, saying it’s probably not good for drinking. One of them takes it home for his grandfather to soak his feet in it. So Jozef just takes a decilitre to taste, it’s really salty. Above Námestovo that storm looks scary, hopefully it doesn’t catch us.

We made it, I’ve had quite enough! We change into cleaner clothes, so Martin doesn’t pass out from the smell in the car, and 5 minutes later we’re already driving. I’m glad this ride worked out and we’ll be in Kysuce earlier than before midnight. As we approach that darkness, rain starts, and within a few minutes it’s an absolute downpour. There are a few centimeters of water on the road and hail starts joining in too. It’s quite the storm, the surrounding hills are white from all that hail. Within 5 minutes we’re out of it and the sun’s shining. Martin drives fairly fast, which makes me feel a bit sick, but at 7:30pm we get out in Krásno. Our bus is in an hour, so we go to Pohoda Burger. From outside it doesn’t look too inviting, but inside it’s actually a pretty pleasant place. We each have a beer and order a burger. To our surprise, fries are included in the price, so it’s fairly cheap. For 3 beers and two burgers with fries we pay €30, and I can’t even finish mine. The bus stop’s right in front of the place, so we head out 3 minutes before departure. It’s 15 minutes to Čadca, and there we wait 10 minutes to change to the Raková bus. At 9pm we’re in Raková and go to hitchhike toward Korcháň. Jozef’s skeptical, but I’ve hitchhiked here many times before and someone always stops for me, since there’s always someone around who knows me and stops. We wait behind the tracks under a lamp, so we’re visible. We wait 10 minutes and no car. First a van passes, and right behind it a car, which stops for us. My first question is whether they’re going to Korcháň, and only after a few seconds do I realize it’s Tono, my classmate from elementary school. Even though he lives in Raková, he drives us to Korcháň. We hadn’t seen each other in a proper long time, and it was a really lovely encounter. Funnily enough, while walking today I was actually thinking about what a school reunion would be like, wondering what everyone’s up to now. At 9:30pm we’re home, exhausted, but happy that we pulled off this madness. We’ll wait about three years now to forget what it was like, and I’d guess we’ll set out again someday, even though right now we’re saying never again

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Sedlo Príslop – Sedlo Hliny

→ 39,5 km ↑ 1869 m ↓ 2016 m – total 98 km

I slept like a rock the whole night. We wake up at 6:15am with no alarm. We’ve got a long day ahead of us today, so we get straight up. I walk barefoot on the grass for a bit. Jozef makes breakfast, oat porridge for me and a savory Katka porridge with garlic flavor for himself. Surprisingly it tastes really good and has a great ingredients too, just lentils, spices and salt, and a lot of protein. Then we have coffee. We pack up everything and set off at half 7:30am. We start with that top-tier 30% climb up Svítková. It’s only half a kilometer, but it takes us 20 minutes.

It went better than I’d expected. We continue on to Talapkov Beskyd. Today we’ve got an ambitious plan, we tweaked the route a bit so we can manage it in 4 days. Every so often views open up over Malá Fatra.

Jozef remembers it’s English Monday today, so we switch to English. On Panský kopec I pull down my panties, since they’re chafing and it’s getting pretty uncomfortable. I continue without them, walking’s much better right away. We stop briefly at Podúšust and fuel up before the climb up Úšust. Hnilická Kýčera’s been beaten. This climb is absolutely terrible. We stop every few minutes. Halfway up Jozef checks the map and finds out there was actually a way around it, but since we hadn’t noticed the turn-off, it was probably in bad shape anyway. The closer we get to the top, the steeper it gets, eventually reaching 50%.

We’re finally up, the other side’s a bit gentler for about a kilometer and then drops steeply down to Delená voda. The little spring’s not great, no water’s flowing and it’s all waterlogged there, but we’ve still got enough water. It’s called Delená voda (Divided Water) because the water flows off from there in both directions, meaning part of it ends up in the Baltic Sea and part in the Black Sea. There’s a table with benches, so we take a break and eat tortillas. First a savory one with tuna, sugo and garlic, then a sweet one with a cinnamon-almond tube from Kolatch. We continue on through the forest.

We’d thought it would get gentler after Úšust, but it’s still constant up and down, and steeply too. Nature calls, good thing I always carry a trowel. Jozef reads the news meanwhile while I go handle it in the forest. When I get back he tells me the Pope died. That makes me sad. I remember sitting in the common room at our dorm in high school watching his election. On the last kilometer before Novoťanské sedlo Hlinka my feet already really hurt and I need a moment to rest. The pass has a parking lot full of Polish cars. On the Slovak side there’s a new shelter built, with seating areas and sleeping platforms, a bike charging station and an outlet. There are toilets next to it, which Jozef goes to use while I take off my shoes and stretch my legs a bit. I don’t know how I’ll manage today’s planned destination. Three kilometers away is the hut below Kraví vrch, so this stretch is busy, we only meet Poles.

The hut sits in a meadow and there are a lot of people there. No wonder, it’s genuinely beautiful here. The prices match the high demand. We get two žurek soups and three Brackie beers. Luckily you can pay in euros too, so we pay €28. We take the soup outside. I’d most like to just lie down here and take a nap. We drag ourselves along, not really wanting to continue.

It’s already 3pm and we’ve still got 18 km ahead, we’ll need to really pick up the pace. I manage to speed up a bit and we even run downhill. All day we keep passing frog spawn, which always makes me happy to see.

We gradually climb higher and every so often hit mud and marshes, which we can’t manage to cross with dry feet.

At the turn-off to the hut where we’d originally planned to sleep, we decide to keep going another 10 km. We’ve got a climb ahead up Pilsko hill, but not quite as steep. We come across the last remnants of snow too.

We fuel up with a protein bar and keep climbing. We’re finally up. There’s a lovely view from here over Babia hora and the Polish side of the Tatras.

A bit below the summit we top up a little water. The wooden well’s broken, but you can fill up from the spring flowing higher up. Its water trickles down the trail. And we’d wanted to move fast. We’ve got 5 km and 750 meters of elevation left to the pass. Going down works out pretty well for me, so I hop around through the water. Jozef’s in crisis, his legs hurt so much that, in his own words, he’d “rather cut them off with an angle grinder.”

Even so, on the last kilometer we actually overtake some hikers. We look around for a suitable tent spot, but it’s all waterlogged here. We reach the pass and look for the toilets marked on the map. We’d wanted to top up water there, but it’s fenced off and under renovation. So we head for the restaurant instead, but there’s a private party going on there. I was already getting ready to go ask for water with my sweetest face, but a few hundred meters lower there’s a shop with water marked nearby. So we go try there instead. We find a wooden trough with running water. I’m genuinely glad, since the sun’s already set and we don’t have much time. We fill up water and I rinse the mud off my calves a bit. We head toward the forest along a farm track, so we’re not right out in the open. We find a bit of flat ground and pitch the tent. Since we forgot to dry it during the day, I wipe it down inside with a towel. There’s a little stream right next to it, where we go wash our feet, since they’re pretty smelly after three days of walking. After today’s distance, cold water can only do them good. We probably overdid it a bit, everything hurts and we just lie there. Jozef goes to cook an instant meal, “chicken paprikash.” We’d said we’d try it, but it’s not very good. I was worried cars would wake me at night, but I’m so tired I fall asleep instantly

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Vojty Lazy settlement – Sedlo Príslop

→ 35 km ↑ 1619 m ↓ 1418 m – total 58,5 km

The first rays of sun wake us before 6am, but it’s nice and warm in the sleeping bags and we really don’t feel like getting up, so we doze off for another hour and a half. We get up at 7:15am. Jozef makes coffee, gets rolls with salami and korbáčiky ready, and I do my Spanish Duolingo.

I climb out of the warm sleeping bag, stretch a bit, and go hang the water bladder on a tree so it can filter. I change straight into hiking clothes so I can start packing. We have chocolate with our coffee, brush our teeth, pack up the tent and set off. Breakfast and packing took us an hour, a good time for the first day. We continue on a gentle path around some settlements. The route I’d planned goes over Kýčerka hill, but we’d rather go around it, half a kilometer longer, but with nicer views.

We turn onto the blue trail heading down to Oščadnica. It’s a pretty waterlogged path, so we hop from side to side, and sometimes there’s nowhere to jump, so our shoes get soaked. Luckily we can already hear trains, so we’re close. By the train stop there’s a spring where we go top up water and make tea. If you thought some kind of teabag, you’d be wrong. Crouched by the railway track I sip Darjeeling while editing photos. Ahead of us is 12.5 km and 850 m of climbing to Veľká Rača. We cross the railway and a bridge over the Kysuca river.

We walk a bit along a cycling route by the river. I also go check out a viewpoint above the river with a view of the railway. Then we start climbing across a meadow above Oščadnica. We go around Čarovná lúka (Enchanted Meadow), an area where they grow flowers and lavender, where people come to take photos, but it’s still all covered over.

The village built a “bandits’ trail” with some funding, which by pure coincidence we now find ourselves on, so every kilometer we pass a big wooden statue of some highwayman with a sign next to it describing the history of banditry in the area. My reaction is basically: “that must have taken some real effort, and for something so pointless.”

At noon we take a break by the lookout tower below Kalinový vrch and eat rolls. We sit there about 10 minutes and a family with kids arrives to grill, so they set up at the next table . Jozef’s getting antsy and wants to move already, but I’m updating the blog, so he has to wait. The next break will be at the hut on Veľká Rača. We continue along the blue trail.

After 5 km we reach Dedovka, which is fairly busy, so we don’t even stop and climb the green trail up Rača. My energy’s starting to run out, so I have a candy and drag myself uphill. We pass more ski lifts. We were here about three years ago, but I don’t remember any of it. At 2pm we finally reach the hut. Jozef gets žurek soup and I get strawberry pierogi, with a beer of course. We pay by card and settle onto the terrace with a view. We wait about 15 minutes for the food, I’m starving by now. The strawberry pierogi turn out to be blueberry instead, which doesn’t bother me at all.

Fueled up, we set off on the next 15 km of today’s route. From here we more or less continue right along the Slovak-Polish border. The trail rolls along the ridge and every so often views open up on the Polish side.

After 4 km we stop by a little spring and top up water. We mix pomelo Tang, which we brought back from Argentina, into one bottle, for a bit more energy to keep walking. From there the trail continues mostly through forest, alternating between beech and spruce.

We really don’t feel like walking much anymore, but we need to keep a brisk pace to make it before dark. Two kilometers before today’s destination we fill all our containers at the Dvojistá voda spring. We also give ourselves a quick rinse, so we don’t go to sleep quite so dirty. Ahead of us is still a steep climb up some kind of rock formation. It reminds us of the climb up Veľký Polom.

From Rycierova hora it’s just 300 meters down to Sedlo Príslop above Vychylovka. This pass separates the Kysuce and Orava Beskids. On the opposite hill we can see what kind of climb awaits us tomorrow. That’ll be quite the warm-up. There’s a shelter at the pass, so we set our things down there. Jozef pitches the tent and inflates the sleeping pads while I loosen up my feet a bit.

For dinner we have Asian chicken instant noodles, then pasta with tuna, sugo and cheese. We eat at the table like proper people, so meanwhile I post a few videos to Instagram. After sunset birds chirp loudly, and every so often we catch some singing from down in the village. It’s turned cold now, so we brush our teeth and go warm up in the sleeping bags. I’d meant to write too, but my hands are completely numb, and once I’m warm, sleep really pulls at me, so I leave it for tomorrow. As I’m dozing off, I suddenly hear a big noise in the forest and cracking branches. That really sounds like a bear. For a second fear grips me, but then I rationalize it, probably not here to eat me. Likely, once it senses us, it’ll head off another way. And that’s exactly what happened, within a few seconds I heard the cracking sounds moving further away. I don’t have the energy to think about it any further and fall asleep.

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Easter’s here, and once again we’ve planned a multi-day hike around Slovakia. Even though the snow’s already melted even in the high mountains, we decided to head into unfamiliar territory, from Korcháň to Babia hora. Because of the weather we start on Holy Saturday. The plan is to cover almost 130 km in 5 days.

Saturday, 19.4.2025

Korcháň – Vojty Lazy settlement

→ 23,5 km ↑ 987 m ↓ 780 m

We arrive in Kysuce on Friday evening. All morning I’m peeling potatoes for potato salad for a whole crowd of people. For lunch dad fries us schnitzels, so we’ve got enough strength, and with our coffee we eat the edges off mom’s honey cake, since it definitely won’t survive till we’re back. At 1:30pm we leave the house, my parents wave us off.

We head toward Zavaleniská and Vŕšky. The red trail goes the other way and skirts around Sagatka. We head straight up over Sagatka to Prieľač.

Except the path curves off the other way, so we turn back and go steeply down through an uncleared logging area. We finally reach the red marker, onto a forest road. Jozef compliments me on picking a good route.

From Prieľač it climbs steeply up. I lean into my poles and pant along. When we reach the ridge, lovely views open up all around. Then the trail rolls nicely through meadows, and the air smells of flowers.

The temperature’s deceptive, nice in the sun, but the moment it goes behind a cloud, it’s properly cold. Around 3pm we arrive in Raková and go to the Jednota store to stock up on a few more supplies. We buy rolls, salami, mustard, korbáčiky cheese, grated cheese, tuna and a few sweets too. And we really didn’t want to overdo it, but better to have too much than too little. We continue toward the local farm. According to the map there’s a path through there, but it’s fenced off, so we find a little track between the fields and start climbing that green hill above Raková.

There’s no path, we go by the navigation on our watches. We join a gravel road leading to Vartovka. We pass by that famous pine tree everyone photographs, so we take a photo too, right next to an enormous pile of manure.

At Vartovka we top up water and start climbing Črchľa. Boy, that’s a real steep one, and on such a waterlogged path too, a real treat. We come out onto the ridge, where it’s blowing pretty hard. As Jozef is waiting for me, he checks every stump around, since Mišo Tlelka apparently hid some beers here a few days ago, so we go looking.

That’s exactly the right kind of geocaching for Jozef. We continue toward Briava along the ridge. Before it we were supposed to turn off down into the pass over Husárik, but we’re still searching. At Briava I put on my windbreaker and we fuel up on croissants. In the end we just run down from there to the Husárik hotel. No beer found. We continue on the red trail to rejoin our original route. It’s a genuinely lovely area here. I don’t get why we haven’t been here before.

The forest road winds between settlements and the sun casts beautiful rays over the surrounding hills, creating a gorgeous spring scene.

We climb Chotárny kopec and we’re tempted to just go around it. We fuel up on candy and head up. Turns out it was pointless, no views up there either, and then it drops steeply down. We descend into Vojtovo sedlo, where 6 off-road vehicles with roof tents are parked and a barbecue’s in full swing. No wonder, there’s a shelter here, a spring, and an exclusive view of Malá Fatra.

If they weren’t here, we’d probably sleep here too. Jozef lies down to fill up water with a canteen on a string. Just to be safe we filter it. We top up both bottles and take a full water bladder too. We’ve got two kilometers left to our final destination. It’s already 7pm and the countryside’s bathed in golden sun. We descend at a brisker pace toward the shelter on Stračia nôžka. As we get closer we hear a dog. Uh oh, looks like it’s already occupied.

We get there and a Polish couple already has a fire going and is getting dinner ready. Just to be sure I ask if they’re sleeping there, they say yes. They’ve got their things laid out upstairs, but I still want to see what it looks like up there. It’s fairly stylish, just a shame it’s not a bit more sealed up, quite drafty in there. He tells us there’s a shelter half an hour from here, at Vojtovo sedlo, so we tell him about those cars. He can’t hide his surprise. Some motorbikers show up below the shelter, we share the same gloomy look, they’ve been revving there a good while already. They even offer to squeeze up a bit, but we’ve got a tent, so we say goodbye and head back half a kilometer to the red trail. We’d spotted a nice little meadow there, in case the shelter was full. We pass the motorbikers, one warns us there’s a bear around here. I nod, acknowledging it, well, I am in the forest. Two of the bikers head our direction. Not sure any bear’s going to show up after all this noise. We just catch the last rays of sun while pitching the tent.

I’ve had quite enough. Since we set off in the afternoon, we walked without a break to make it in time, and on top of that my legs are sore from yesterday’s run. Jozef volunteers to inflate the sleeping pads, since he got himself an electric pump, what a joy. I move my feet around a bit so they don’t hurt tomorrow, and go straight into pajamas. The sky stays a rich orange for a long while. For dinner Jozef first makes garlic soup, and then mashed potato with tuna, garlic, cheese and sugo. So good! We brush our teeth and I even doze off for a moment, but then get down to writing after all. Jozef’s asleep, function as my personal radiator.

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Malá Fatra, Veľká Fatra Kremnické Vrchy a Žiar

3 nights in a tent, 4 nights in a shelter, 1 night in a hut

Well, this hike really went well for us! We started off unsure whether we’d even finish it, but the further we went, the better it got. It runs through my favorite mountain ranges in Slovakia, and yet it still manages to show new, unfamiliar stretches.

We got beautiful Indian-summer weather and only had thick fog on the hills for one day. The timing was perfect, since the clocks changed on the day we got back. I loved these autumn days, in the morning I only needed to get up at 6:30am to catch sunrise, and in the evening I didn’t have to wait long for the stars to come out for photos. On top of that I got a good night’s sleep every night and recovered well. On the other hand, these shorter days meant we had to fit our daily kilometers into a set time window, with fewer breaks and sometimes even running downhill. It was tougher than I’d expected, especially the second half of Veľká Fatra, which isn’t as popular and had a lot of fallen trees.

This isn’t a hike I’d recommend to a beginner. But if you’ve already got some experience and want to try something harder, or train for an alpine crossing, it’s the right choice. At a normal pace you can manage it in 10 days, faster in a week, slower in two weeks.

There are plenty of shelters and places to restock along the way. Whenever we passed through a village or a hut, we’d eat there, and cooked the rest ourselves on the gas stove. We used up one 230g canister and a bit of another, and that’s with fairly cold conditions where we made a lot of tea and coffee too. For our next autumn crossing we’ll probably bring an alcohol stove, so we don’t have to worry about low temperatures. Our down sleeping bags have a 4°C comfort rating and we managed fine even at -3°C, wearing an extra down layer and, of course, sleeping pads with high thermal resistance. As for clothing, we had the same gear as in summer, just layered as needed.

Costs

“Food” means ready meals bought at a hut or restaurant, and “groceries” were bought at a shop. “Drinks” includes beer, coffee, and soft drinks. Total: €377.30.

Closing thoughts

Thank you for being with us again, and I hope our hikes inspire you to get out into nature too. It’s amazing out there! And no, we really didn’t run into a bear.

I’d love it if you left a comment here or sent me a message, it would make my day. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. You can message me on Instagram or email info@stupky.com.

Take care, happy trails, and see you next time.

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Saturday, 26.10.2024

→ 19,7 km ↑ 749 m ↓ 629 m – total 236,1 km

We get up at 6:30am again. It’s fairly warm in the shelter. I catch up on the blog while eating on rolls with ham, Jozef has with bacon. To drink we have black tea and coffee too. There’s a fancy outhouse here too, a modern one. I notice a Radegast 12 beer on the shelf below. I laugh at Jozef, since he’d genuinely have a beer last night given the chance. I go check out the second spring, which isn’t marked on the map. It flows just as slowly as yesterday’s, but at least I wash my face in it. Then I go pack everything and carry it downstairs. There’s good signal here, so I catch up on the blog. Jozef’s getting impatient and wants to go. He’d already changed into shorts, assuming we were leaving, so now he’s cold.

We set off at 9:30am, with the last 20 km of the route ahead of us. Today’s already typical autumn weather. Heavy grey clouds in the sky, with the sun occasionally peeking through, a strong cold wind, and colored leaves flying around us everywhere.

We cross the Sklenianske lúky and watch sunbeams filtering through the clouds onto the surrounding hills.

Then we climb Bralová skala above Remata. We’re a stone’s throw from home now. Beautifully colored hills stretch out below us.

We keep a brisk pace, ready to have this behind us. Now it’s just walking through forest, we finish off the last of our sweets, cross the highest hill of today’s stretch, Vysoká, and descend into Kunešov.

We get lost about three times, even though I have the route loaded on my watch. Eventually we reach an open meadow, where navigation gets simple.

In Kunešov a bus tempts us as it’s just about to leave, but it would bother us not to walk those last few kilometers. At the edge of the village we take a break, eat korbáčiky cheese and Asian jerky. We’ve only got 7 km left on asphalt to the end. Cows along the way make the road more pleasant.

The kilometers tick down and there’s just the last climb ahead, to Stred Európy (Center of Europe). We’ve both been there before, so we don’t stop. The end is close, just the last two kilometers.

We’re a bit anxious about what state we’ll find our car in. It’s there, in one piece, no wheel clamp, so that’s a relief. We change into somewhat cleaner shirts and swap into other shoes. It’s just starting to drizzle a bit, so we made it just in time. We sit down in the car with relief. After 9 days of walking, it feels like we’re driving unbelievably fast in that car, pretty funny. We stop at a farm shop and buy some head cheese and pork cracklings. We’re both starving, so Jozef munches on cracklings along the way, I’m not a big fan myself. We put on the Lajf podcast with Andrej Orogváni, a runner we met on the trail and whom Dávid identified based on the fact that he’d run the whole Koruna Turca and had a dark beard. Interesting guy, I recommend the podcast. We head toward Prievidza, to the Vietnamese bistro Phos. We order Pho, Bun nam bo and Bun cha. The woman there, who barely speaks Slovak, double-checks whether we really want three dishes, since the portions are huge.

We have no trouble finishing it all. We’d hoped for an open ice cream shop in Nováky, but sadly it was already closed for the season. I could’ve fit in some kind of dessert. Since we’ve got nothing at home, we put off the shower with a stop at Lidl. We shop, unpack everything at home, and it looks like a bomb went off in there. I go shower, washing my hair is a totally different experience at this point. I catch up on yesterday’s blog and Jozef’s already back at work. Our bedtime hasn’t budged, and properly exhausted, we go to sleep.

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Útulňa Javorina pod Kľakom – Útulňa SNP Sklené

→ 40,5 km ↑ 1420 m ↓ 1761 m – total 216,4 km

We get up at 6:30am. Slept nicely, warm in our sleeping bags. I lie there and finish writing the blog. Jozef gets breakfast ready. First he hands me bread with Pali pâté, but I don’t like it, so he makes me chocolate oat porridge instead, with tea and coffee.

Before we leave we visit the top-notch outhouse and tidy up the shelter a bit.

Today we’ve got the most kilometers of the whole route ahead, and we’re already setting off fairly late. It’s 5 km downhill to Vrícko.

First through forest, already covered in a pile of leaves, so we need to watch for rocks, then along a cycling route through the valley. The start of this road’s pretty marked up by logging, and even though we try to go around it, we end up looking like little piglets. We’re moving slower than expected.

In Vrícko we go shopping at the Jednota store. To our surprise they’ve got a fairly decent selection. We buy stuff for the last day: pasta, soup, tuna, mortadella, garlic, ham, a smoked cheese spread and good rolls. As a snack now we have a chocolate roll, a walnut pastry and a beer. We sit outside the shop for quite a while and then continue along the paved road about 4 km to Vríčske sedlo. I’d originally wanted to take the forest road, but it had more elevation, and given we’re in bear country, we figured this would be the smarter choice. At least it goes by fast on the road.

At the pass we join the SNP trail, which we’ll follow all the way to the end of our crossing. At the same time we also enter the Žiar mountains, which we should cross entirely today. We start with a fairly steep climb to Závozy through some unattractive forest. Then it continues more gently, with the occasional view.

Autumn’s really in the air now. Beautifully colored trees everywhere and leaves fluttering around us. But every time I try to film it, they stop. Jozef’s starting to think I have some kind of obsession with them. Here and there I remember bits of my own SNP Trail hike, like where I took a nap, and that in the forest before Vyšehrad pass there’s a little box with stones engraved with “Cesta hrdinov SNP.” If anyone feels their pack’s too light, they can add a bit of weight there.

Just before the pass, in a fence with cows, we have lunch, those amazing rolls. I catch up on the blog, though it takes a long time and probably means we won’t make it before sunset. It’s already past 2pm and we’ve still got 19 km to the end. Ahead of us is the last bigger hill, Vyšehrad. We move really fast and are up within 25 minutes.

We take some photos on the rock and jog downhill. From here the route should be gently rolling and mostly on some kind of forest road, which we can cover fast.

We push it to top speed and even run downhill. We barely stop, only for water, and in the second half I have a Mila bar to keep my strength up. There’s a lot of dense thicket here, so we whistle and tap our poles, but don’t spot any sign of bears.

5 km before the end we pass by Jožkovňa shelter, where I’d originally planned to sleep, but I want to check out the new shelter instead.

The kilometers tick by, and 500 m before the shelter we top up every bottle we’ve got. It only flows in a thin trickle, so it takes about 10 minutes. We cover the last stretch through the forest in near-dark. At 6pm we arrive at the shelter, genuinely happy with that timing. We go straight upstairs to lay out our things. There are nice mattresses, so we don’t even bother inflating the sleeping pads, just lay tyvek on them. There’s even a solar panel, so I charge my watch and we’ve got a light on. Jozef goes straight to cooking and I get started sorting through photos. First we have chicken soup with leftover Slovak rice, then pasta with garlic, tuna and mortadella, and finally herbal tea. I’m glad we’re finishing tomorrow, we really pushed it today and we’ve had quite enough. Our clothes could use a wash too, and I’d love to wash my hair. Jozef of course goes to sleep earlier, and I write the blog until 10pm. I don’t manage to finish it, but tomorrow’s a short day, so I’ll do it in the morning.

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Chata Javorina – Útulňa Javorina pod Kľakom

→ 28,6 km ↑ 1663 m ↓ 1913 m – total 175,9 km

Alarm’s at 6:30am. Jozef got up before it went off and started waking me. Didn’t exactly put me in a good mood, I hadn’t slept that well. We pack our things and go down for coffee. We’ve got a beautiful sunrise view, even though the windows are wet with condensation on the outside. Jozef goes out to photograph it.

Meanwhile I pay and we sit a while longer until the sun climbs a bit higher. The hut keeper gives us a Mila bar for the road too, probably knows it’s my birthday today. At 7:30am we set off. Five minutes later we reach Veľká lúka and fog wraps around us.

So we set out breakfast, hoping it’ll clear soon and we’ll get nice views along the ridge walk. Meanwhile I finish the blog, and by the time I upload it, the fog’s cleared.

I’ve gotten properly cold from sitting still, so I put on two pairs of gloves and we set off. First we walk through a kind of tunnel of dwarf pine, and then the ridge opens up beautifully and we continue across a meadow.

Clouds sit below and the sun shines beautifully above. I’ve warmed up by now too. From Horná lúka I need to duck over to the outhouse by the burned-down Grandhotel Partyzán. Shame about that shelter, it burned down in 2014, got rebuilt, and burned down again in 2021, though apparently people were squatting there and it had turned into quite a mess. Now only a lightly trodden little path leads there, and my shoes get completely soaked crossing it. I turn back, have some nuts, and we continue along the forested ridge.

We plan lunch for Hnilická Kýčera. From this side it’s not such a terrible hill. Up top there’s a small meadow with a lovely view, so we set up, eat kaiser rolls and a Horalka wafer. Going down is worse though, straight down through mud, luckily fairly dry now. We descend very slowly and Jozef goes for water. He meets an ultra runner heading from Fačkovské to Orava, who mentions he also finished the Koruna Turca in 3 days.

We continue on and reach more meadows with views. We were last time here about three years ago, on our 5th date, and I don’t remember it being this beautiful at all, guess we only had eyes for each other back then.

On the descent into Vríčanské sedlo there’s logging going on, so the road’s ankle-deep mud. We go around it however we can through the forest.

At the pass we take a short break before the climb to Kľak. It’s 500 meters over 3 km. We start very steep. I’m really running out of steam today. Halfway up my mom calls, so at least I get a short rest. We don’t remember this brutal climb either, must have blocked it out too. When the hill eases off, another treat awaits, pushing through young beech saplings.

Luckily we then reach a lovely viewpoint on a rock, and from there it’s just a short way. But I’m genuinely done.

There’s only one person at Kľak and it’s really windy. The views are beautiful, we can see the entire Koruna Turca laid out before us.

We take a few photos and jog down to the shelter below Kľak. We’re there within 20 minutes. We drop our packs and go gather some firewood. Jozef then splits some wood that was already stacked there. I got properly cold up at Kľak and my shoes are soaked through. I go fill a pot with spring water and put it on the stove to heat. No cold water for me today. Jozef goes to cook, first a packet of French onion soup in a mug. Once the water’s warm enough, I wash my feet in it, a real spa treatment!

I heat up more water and Jozef puts his feet in too, genuinely lovely after a whole day walking in damp shoes. We put the tent and the tyvek groundsheet out to dry a bit more. I inflate the sleeping pads, then warm up by the stove and pick out photos. Second course is pasta with tuna, garlic and ketchup, and for dessert, chocolate with nuts. The perfect birthday dinner! My brother Peťo even manages to call to congratulate me, partly in Spanish, since they’re heading there next week. I’ve got signal here, so I share it with Jozef so he can read his messages, and I keep editing photos. Then we brush our teeth, pee, Jozef goes to sleep and I write for a bit longer, but as always, I’m so worn out it completely knocks me out.

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Chata pod Chlebom – Chata Javorina

→ 35,4 km ↑ 2167 m ↓ 2159 m – total 147,3 km

We actually manage to get up at 6am. It was fairly warm overnight with occasional gusts. The tent’s completely soaked with condensation and all our things are damp. We change straight away, Jozef gets breakfast ready and I pack. Then I go look for the kitten I’d been petting last night, and there it is.

We give it a slice of salami and we’re already friends. It winds around our legs so much that we give it a few more. It knows how to work us. Meanwhile we have breakfast, drink tea and finish packing. Unbelievably, we manage it all within the hour. We start with a climb on the yellow trail to Snilovské sedlo. The sun’s just coming up and the sky’s beautifully tinted pink. The clouds add to the magical atmosphere.

At Veľký Kriváň we photograph the cloud blanket below us and take a photo together.

Then the sky clouds over and we more or less stay in the clouds for the whole day. We just can’t seem to get good weather here in Malá Fatra. No matter, today we’re in a hurry and at least we stop less for photos. It’s about 10 km to Chata pod Suchým.

We continue through Malý Kriváň, Stratenec, Biele skaly all the way to Suchý. The last stretch is more technically demanding and we move slowly. The descent from Suchý is fairly unpleasant, over loose scree.

At 11am we’re already in the warmth of the hut. I have coffee and strapačky, and Jozef has a farmer’s platter and a beer. Half an hour later we head down, since we’re supposed to meet my brother Dávid in Strečno at 1pm, who’s bringing us a gas canister. We descend from the hut on the blue trail. We thought we’d chosen the easier route, but it’s more like an ankle-twister. It’s an unmaintained rocky path, covered in leaves. I go at a gentle jog to get it over with fast. Jozef falls behind and grumbles, since he’s the one who picked this route. Once we join the red trail lower down, we move fast alongside the Váh river.

In Strečno we first go shopping for the next two days and then head to the parking lot by the castle, where we’re meeting Dávid. Three little Heglas girls are waiting there too. Together we climb the stairs up toward the castle, top up water, and they walk with us a bit further to the turn-off.

It’s 2pm and we’ve still got 13 km and almost 1300 meters of elevation ahead. We choose the red route, which is a bit gentler than the alternative. Even so, we start with a solid climb and then join a forest road that feels endless.

After 6 km and 800 meters of climbing we reach Javorina pass and take a break for bread with salami. From here the route’s very familiar to us, since we ran it a month ago during Big Bear’s Ultra. And we know exactly how nasty a climb is waiting for us. There’s logging going on here, so we go a bit off the marked trail, bypassing it the same way we did during the race.

Gradually the route eases off and we move a bit faster. At Minčol it looks like we might get above the clouds, but no luck. When we ran this, it felt shorter somehow. From here it’s still 4 kilometers to the hut.

We’d originally wanted to sleep in the tent by the hut, but all our things are damp, the tent weighs double from this morning’s condensation, and there was no time or conditions to dry it today. At 5:30pm we reach Chata Javorina. We have a beer and ask about a room. The waitress and the hut keeper exchange glances, guessing it’s just the two of us here. It is. I’d actually thought about calling ahead yesterday. So the hut keeper stays with us and the waitress arranges her ride home. We put the tent to dry in the boiler room and the shoes on a special boot radiator. Second day in a row with a shower, even though my legs look like I haven’t washed them in a week. No wonder, the shoes already have holes in several spots. Then we go have dinner, I get lentil soup and pancakes, and Jozef gets bean soup and a amazing segedin goulash. We watch the news while eating and our brains basically shut off, so we turn it off instead and chat with the hut keeper about hiking, shoes and injuries. Before 9pm we head to bed. In the room I still edit photos and write the blog, but it’s like pulling teeth, so I leave it for tomorrow.

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Podšíp – Chata pod Chlebom

→ 20 km ↑ 1815 m ↓ 1136 m – total 111,9 km

Again we both go pee around 3am and get up at 6:30am. We pack fairly fast and have bread with salami for breakfast. It’s noticeably colder this morning because of the humidity, so I have herbal tea and Jozef black. We’ve got a beautiful view of Malá Fatra lit up by the morning sun.

Today’s going to be a shorter day. We start with a descent into Kraľovany, 2 km, first on a cycling route and then on an unmarked road. On the way down we hit fog, which makes it even colder.

We descend to the railway bridge over the Orava river, which a train just crossed. We hurry across too before the next one comes. I’m a bit worried, so we jog it lightly. At the station we go to the Dvojka bar, have coffee and charge our electronics. I catch up on the blog while Jozef goes shopping. It’s a legendary spot among the local regulars, where the waitress already refuses to pour them a shot of borovička at 9am. Then I go clean myself up a bit in the bathroom and wash some underwear. We have one more beer each and set off at 11am on the green trail toward Stoh. It’s 8.7 km and almost 1300 meters of elevation, the sign gives a time of 3:30. We start steep, right into the hill. We go slow, but steady.

After an hour and over 600 meters of climbing we take a break. We each eat two rolls and a Mila bar. Walking’s easier after the break. A fairly strong wind picks up, and after standing still I’m left cold. Another hour on and we’re at Žobrák hill. That final climb with the strong wind was a real treat. Then we drop a bit and the views open up.

Stoh’s summit is wrapped in clouds. I’ve never taken this route up Stoh before, and probably never will again in my life.

Almost a vertical trail straight up. We finally reach the end, and with the break included it really took us three and a half hours. It’s white and windy at the top, we don’t linger and head into a somewhat gentler descent.

I realize I haven’t been here in a really long time, and that this was actually our first time climbing Stoh together. Once we drop below the cloud cover, the wind dies down and views open up over Rozsutec and the whole ridge.

The further we go, the more the clouds retreat, flowing between the mountains. In the end it turns into a beautiful, interesting day again.

After Stoh my thighs are already worn out, and I start whining on the next climbs along the ridge. Luckily we don’t have far to go today and the views are beautiful. We reach the pass below Hromové and start descent toward Chata pod Chlebom. After a few hundred meters clouds swallow us up.

I’m already really looking forward to the hut, finally a shower! It’s pleasantly warm inside, we unpack and each have a beer. We pay €10 for the tent, which includes a shower too. Jozef goes to pitch the tent below the hut and I blow up the sleeping pads inside. Then I go shower, feels like a whole new person. For dinner we have lentil soup, garlic soup, liver sausage and steamed buns, with a beer (they’ve got Martins on tap here, Jozef’s favorite). Over dinner we chat with the waitress Petra, an ultramarathon runner. I write the blog and edit photos. Jozef’s already heading for the tent when the guys at the next table offer us beer, saying they’d ordered too much. I decline, since I’ll already sleep badly tonight and tomorrow’s the toughest day of the whole route. I upload the blog for about another half hour and then head to the tent too. Jozef has to reinflate the sleeping pads because the air expands and contracts with temperature. I brush my teeth, change into pajamas, and we’re asleep after 9pm.

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